Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection Review (Xbox One)

Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection is a remaster of the Ezio Auditore trilogy of Assassin’s Creed games that were released for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. This remaster essentially overhauls the visuals, especially for Assassin’s Creed 2, and it also serves as a starting point for those who want to get a taste of the adventures of Ezio Auditore, arguably the most famous Assassin in the series.

So what exactly is included in this collection? To start off, there are 3 games featured in this collection; Assassin’s Creed 2, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and Assassin’s Creed Revelations. Aside from these two games, the collection also includes two short movies, one is the live action Assassin’s Creed Lineage set before and during the story sequence of Assassin’s Creed 2, while the other is an animated movie called Assassin’s Creed Embers, which deals with the story of Ezio Auditore after the trilogy.

Those who were hoping for multiplayer from Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood or Revelations will be disappointed to know that it doesn’t make the cut for this collection. All 3 of the games only feature their single player campaign and even though the multiplayer made its first splash with Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, it appears to have been removed for this collection. Still, for its price, we are getting 3 lengthy single player adventure from history’s best Assassin, Ezio Auditore.

If you have never played any Assassin’s Creed game, we highly recommend to start with this Trilogy as it is arguably the best story told in any Assassin’s Creed game. The first game in the series, Assassin’s Creed 2, appears to have received the most upgrades in term of visual design compared to the other 2 games in the trilogy. We have covered this in our detailed comparison between Assassin’s Creed 2 on the Xbox One and Xbox 360.

Aside from the boost in visuals, the games appear to run at solid 30 fps on the Xbox One, which isn’t really much of an upgrade from the original release which also ran at 30 fps. This could have been a worthy upgrade if the remaster was able to run at 60 fps, but this doesn’t appear to be the case here. This definitely decreases the appeal of the remaster if you have already bought the trilogy on PC, where it is possible to run it on 60 fps and above on any low-spec hardware.

While the main story of the trilogy is one of the best in the series, the games also suffer from the same ‘Ubisoft open world’ syndrome where the emphasis is placed on keeping the player engaged by unlocking parts of the map through climbing towers to reveal new secrets. This continued through all 3 games so if you are planning to start with all of them in one go, it is best if you jsut focus on the story and single player campaign, because it is possible to get burnout after completing everything in the whole trilogy.

While Assassin’s Creed 2 didn’t include a proper multiplayer mode when it originally launched on the PS3 and Xbox 360, its sequels all had a unique type of multiplayer mode that seemed to be more than enough fun to please the fans. This multiplayer mode has been unfortunately stripped out of the remaster which results in them lacking content compared to the original release. There is a positive aspect to the remaster though, which is that it adds all of the DLC released for the game in one package, so you are essentially getting the complete package with the trilogy aside from the multiplayer.

The improved visuals in the remaster are mixed bag where some of the characters are noticeably upgraded, but they also lose the charm of the original game. Some of these can be seen quite early in the game if we compare them side by side. The revamped lighting also results in some artistic change to the tone of the scene, which might not sit well with some of the die-hard fans of the series. In our case, we definitely didn’t mind the new changes to the game’s visual since they help with the somewhat dated visuals that the games had during its original release.

Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection is a worthy purchase for those who are looking for a fun romp through a single player Assassin’s Creed game. It also features one of the best written Assassin in the series and the journey from a young Ezio to his transformation as an adult by the end of the series is truly one that shouldn’t be missed at all cost.

Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection is available now for the PS4 and Xbox One. It was developed an published by Ubisoft. This review covers the Xbox One version of the game.

Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection Review (Xbox One)

Summary

Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection offers three excellent games in one single package, unfortunately it also does this at the expense of stripping out the multiplayer from game.